YouTube Horror Star Spencer Lackey Is Making the Jump to Features with A24-Level Backing

Hollywood’s fascination with internet-born horror talent shows no signs of slowing down. Over the past year, the industry has repeatedly turned to social media for its next breakout filmmaker, chasing the kind of runaway success that turned unknown creators into box office names almost overnight.

That search has produced some genuine hits, with Kane Parsons’ ‘Backrooms’ pulling in $394,000,000 worldwide on a budget under $10,000,000, and Curry Barker’s ‘Obsession’ becoming another major talking point of the summer. Studios have taken notice, and the hunt for the next creator-turned-filmmaker has only intensified.

Now that search has landed on Spencer Lackey. Neon and Blumhouse Atomic Monster are teaming up on ‘Lust,’ a horror feature written and directed by the digital creator, marking his jump from short-form content into full-length filmmaking.

Lackey has spent years building his following through original, narrative-driven horror shorts, amassing more than 7,000,000 followers across YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. His breakout moment came with ‘You Are Here,’ a liminal-space short that Mike Flanagan produced and that made the festival circuit, earning Lackey serious attention from industry insiders looking for the next big digital-to-feature crossover story.

That attention has now translated into real backing. Steven Schneider, known for his work on the ‘Paranormal Activity’ franchise, is producing through Spooky Pictures, while Jason Blum and James Wan are producing for Blumhouse Atomic Monster. Neon and Blumhouse Atomic Monster are co-financing the project, giving Lackey two of horror’s most reliable hitmakers in his corner for his very first feature.

Details on ‘Lust’ itself remain scarce, with the project’s logline being kept firmly under wraps for now. What is clear is that Lackey wrote the script himself and will direct, a rare combination of creative control for a first-time feature filmmaker working with major genre financiers.

Online, Lackey has become known for embracing absurd, unsettling premises in his content, including shorts built around bizarre scenarios like a monster quietly watching him do household chores. Whether that same tone carries into ‘Lust’ remains to be seen, but it offers a hint at the kind of unconventional horror sensibility he’s bringing to the project.

Lackey isn’t the only online personality making this leap right now. Neon has already released ‘Shelby Oaks’ from YouTube creator Chris Stuckmann and ‘It Ends’ from Alexander Ullom, while Warner Bros. recently picked up the rights to ‘Siren Head,’ based on the viral internet meme, with Zach Cregger and Brian Duffield attached to write.

Lackey has previously spoken about this shift in how the industry views creators like himself. He told Dread Central that industry folks are starting to take digital creators more seriously, while acknowledging there’s still a real difference between making a TikTok and making a feature film.

With horror veterans like Schneider, Blum and Wan guiding the project, Lackey appears to be entering feature filmmaking with about as much institutional support as a first-time director could hope for. He’s repped by 3 Arts Entertainment, WME and Ginsburg Daniels Kallis, further signaling how seriously the industry is treating his transition.

Given the runaway success other creator-driven horror films have had this year, expectations for ‘Lust’ will likely be high the moment more details emerge. For now, fans of Lackey’s short-form work will simply have to wait and see how his signature blend of unsettling, internet-honed horror translates to the big screen.

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